Italy's growing hostility towards illegal immigrants has been condemned by one of the country's best-known models, who has admitted that she too was a clandestino living in fear of arrest and deportation.

Czech-born Alena Seredová, 30, is a household name in Italy after carving out a successful career as a model, TV presenter and actress. She is also the partner of the goalkeeper for Italy's national football team, Gigi Buffon, with whom she has just had a child.

After Buffon saved a crucial penalty in the Euro 2008 championship match against Romania this month, fans queued up in the stadium to ask for an autograph from Seredová, who had watched the match kitted out in Italy's football strip. She is expected to be there this evening when Italy play Spain in Vienna in the quarter-finals. But her sudden intervention in the hottest political debate of the day had been unexpected.

With the backing of the anti-immigrant Northern League party, Silvio Berlusconi's government plans to make it a criminal offence, punishable by prison, to enter Italy illegally. If adopted, the new legislation would be among the strictest in Europe; it has drawn criticism from Italian centre-left parties, the Vatican and the United Nations. But a succession of opinion polls have suggested strong support for Berlusconi from voters angry about a perceived crime wave by foreigners.

In an interview with Corriere della Sera, Seredová revealed she was illegally resident in Italy after her arrival from the Czech Republic, before that country joined the European Union. As a result of her experience, she said she was acutely aware of the dangers of stigmatising all migrants.

'I believe that people who escape from misery to come to Italy to work, risking their skin on one of those boat crossings, should be accepted,' she said.

Despite landing a job immediately as a TV show co-host in Italy in 2000, Seredová said she was scared to walk the streets because of her irregular status. 'It's absurd,' she said 'My work put me in the public eye, but when I passed a policeman in the street I was afraid he would stop me. It brought me to tears.'

Already a beauty queen at home, Seredová was hard to miss and her fame grew fast in Italy, but she found herself in trouble when her temporary residence permit expired.

'I found myself at the police station on Christmas Day with a medical certificate,' she said, explaining that inventing the need for medical treatment allowed her to stay on temporarily in Italy. After the 'treatment' had ended, she spent a further six months illegally in Italy, continuing to appear on TV. She then returned to the police to obtain a permit to remain in Italy, this time 'as a cleaning lady'.

Seredová's comments have been warmly received by Italian campaigners fighting for the rights of the country's immigrant population. 'She has done well to speak up,' said Daniela Pompei, the immigration officer for the Catholic organisation, Sant'Egidio. 'We must remember that immigrants give a positive contribution to the Italy's economy and society and should be treated with respect.'